Woke publishers ‘paid huge sums for books that flopped’ - Times article

Turns out the handmaidens and TRAs don't a) read anything other than twitter and b) don't want to spend money im support of their cause.

Unlike GC people who quite often do both.

Surprise surprise.

Wonder if Munroe Bergdorf's book was one of the £££ flops? Anyone got access to the sales charts?

The toxicity of the current setup cannot be understated. A $3 million advance on one book to one author is 300 $10,000 advances on 300 books to 300 authors.

My opinion is that they need to stop paying advances to established authors and celebrities anyway, and move to just paying on a royalty-based model for them. They don't need the money, it would balance the books better at the publishing house and it would be fairer if publishers could put that money into new and emerging authors (I have seen first-hand how arbitrary the decision-making in publishing is).

I don't like advances as a system, it feels too much like borrowing money on the promise that I might be able to repay it one day. Only if you default on it through no fault of your own, your career is over rather than facing any legal action. And the success of the book is almost entirely down to the marketing campaign and not all books are marketed equally (not even slightly). I had an argument with my publisher once because I refused an advance on these grounds. They just couldn't fathom it.

There is no way a movie star or a celebrity needs $3 million more than Karen Smith the unknown author who has borrowed on credit cards to get her breakthrough novel professionally edited so she stands a chance of getting her first contract in the modern publishing landscape.

It was extremely unlikely that book by that author was ever going to recoup a $3m advance so I have to wonder in these sorts of cases whether the publishers' commissioning editors are getting a cut from the celebrity authors. Nothing would surprise me in the publishing world TBH, it looks like an amazing institution from the outside but it's really quite corrupt and morally bankrupt in key places.

They promoted the hell out of that book too. Dread to think what the marketing budget was on top of the advance. Also, seems like people shared the articles to virtue signal but not actually wanted to spend their own money or time buying or reading the book that they promoted to others. It's all about optics isn't it

It would be funny if it wasn’t being subsidised by the less celebrity authors that actually do sell, what with their having skill at writing and something to say.

Bookscan results undercook the number of copies sold. The estimates are that Bookscan captures about 60-70% of books sold but there are whole categories they do not cover, I think including the books bought directly from the publisher and from some indie booksellers.

The writer and publisher know how many copies were sold (represented on a royalty statement but most publishers like PRH also have author portals where you can sign in and track weekly).

So it would not be accurate to say Page's book sold fewer than 70k copies (in one territory? That's not clear from the article) but is accurate to say it's a massive flop.

The huge, huge gulf between a virtue signal and actually knowing your customers and what they'll part with money for. Oh well, what a shame.

Is it me, or is that the sound of many experienced and professional middle aged women desperately trying not to say the words 'I told you so'?

And I bet a huge chunk of the 68,000 was bought by the publishers themselves.

Major X post sorry 😂

"Flatiron also paid more than $3 million for the memoir of Elliot Page in which the Hollywood actor discussed his gender transition. The book sold fewer than 68,000 copies, according to BookScan."

Shook